The Ranji Trophy championship may be the national competition but in
many ways, the Duleep Trophy is more important. It certainly is the
more glamorous with the cream of Indian cricketers from the five zones
taking part. It was instituted in 1961-62 as a means to strengthen
competition around the domestic circuit when it was noticed that
playing standards in the Ranji Trophy, after 25 years, had stagnated.
The championship has come a long way since the inaugural match between
South Zone and North Zone at Madras. A premier national competition,
it has frequently served as a selection trial for picking the national
teams. A good performance in the Duleep Trophy has often been the
ticket to a berth in the Indian squad.
In recent years, many leading cricketers have been unable to compete
in the Duleep Trophy thanks to the overcrowded international calendar,
but the competition has always retained its prestige and
importance. The dominant teams have been West Zone, South Zone and
North Zone who have won the trophy 14, 11 and 12 times
respectively. Central Zone have established their claims on four
occasions. On three occasions, the trophy has been shared when the
first innings have not been completed. East Zone remains the only team
yet to win the trophy.
The Duleep Trophy was the brainchild of the then Board of Control for
Cricket in India president MA Chidambaram. After more than 25 years,
it could be seen by the early 60s that the standard in the Ranji
Trophy had deteriorated. The National competition, which had seen many
stirring contests in its halcyon days in the thirties and forties had
fallen on bad days. Weak teams like Kerala, Andhra, Assam, Orissa and
Jammu & Kashmir had been given entries and the lop sided contests had
led to tremendous imbalance. Bombay had dominated in the Ranji Trophy,
winning the trophy 12 times in 27 years while several other areas had
not yet developed enough. Spectator interest too in the premier
national competition had dwindled. Even while moves were afoot to make
the Ranji Trophy more attractive and competitive, the BCCI conceived
the idea of a zonal tournament to be played on a knock out basis
between the five zones. Initially the Bombay Cricket Association had
the idea of staging the tournament annually, as a sort of revival of
the famous Pentangular of old. But Chidambaram was of the view that
the tournament should be played at different venues.
The tournament as only to be expected was an instant success. In its
first year, spectators thronged the stadia to watch the initial games
at Madras, Baroda and Bombay. The final at Bombay was well attended, a
fitting tribute to the man in whose name the trophy was named. It was
held early in the season and did not interfere with the conduct of the
Ranji Trophy in any way. Rather, the two tournaments complemented
each other. The knock out games of the National competition continued
to throw up some talent but it was the Duleep Trophy which sifted this
talent out, processed it and presented it before the public in a more
attractive manner. The standards were incontestably higher and there
was little doubt that the tournament was good for Indian cricket. The
selectors got enough evidence of the form guide to help them pick the
Indian team to play England in the 1961-62 series.
In its formative years itself, the Duleep Trophy outgrew the Ranji
Trophy in popularity and prestige. Certainly it also played its part
in bettering the standard of Indian cricket and in its own way was
responsible for the Indian team faring better during the decade. In
the first decade, the tournament helped uncover the talents of players
like Milkha Singh, Ajit Wadekar, Abid Ali, V.Subramanyam,
Venkatraghavan and Bedi while resurrecting the careers of Jaisimha and
Durrani. And in the 70s, Ramnath Parkar, Parthasarathy Sharma, Brijesh
Patel, the Amarnath brothers, TE Srinivasan and Kapil Dev were
discovered thanks to their sterling performances in the
competition. In the 80s, the Duleep Trophy helped unearth gifted
players like L Sivaramakrishnan, K Srikkanth, Maninder Singh, WV
Raman, TA Sekhar, Kiran More and Raman Lamba.
For the first decade, the dominant teams were West Zone and South
Zone. It was not until 1971-72 that a third team, Central Zone, got
its hands on the trophy. Their triumph was shaped by a superlative
performance by that wayward genius Salim Durrani who pulled in his
weight with both bat and ball in such a telling manner that it was
loosely said the trophy should be renamed `Durrani Trophy'.
By the early 70s North Zone had shown that they were ready for the big
time, thanks in the main to Bedi's shrewd generalship. North Zone won
the trophy for the first time in 1973-74 and over the next 25 years
they have replaced West and South as the dominant team, including a
spell of five years at the top in the early and mid 90s. In the last
two decades, the rivalry between North zone and West zone has been
intense and has led to some memorable contests. However it has also
had its seamy moments, most ignobly at Jamshedpur during the 1990-91
final. The rivalry between some of the players had crossed the
cricketing limit and the nadir was reached when batsman Raman Lamba of
North Zone and bowler Rashid Patel of West Zone `needled' each other,
culminating in an angry Patel charging at Lamba with a stump. The
photograph showing Lamba defending himself with a bat against the
charging Patel took its place as one of the most infamous pictures in
cricket history. The result was a crowd riot and punishment by way of
a suspension for both players.
However, over the last decade or so, the Duleep Trophy has lost much
of the glamour and prestige associated with it earlier. It retained
its importance even as it remained a sort of selection trial to pick
the Indian team. But over the years, many of the leading cricketers
were not in a position to play in the competition. Chiefly this was
because of the overcrowded international calendar. With Test matches
and one day internationals being played virtually round the year, it
became difficult for the BCCI to fit in the Duleep Trophy in such a
way that the top players could take part. Sometimes this was achieved
but then the attitude of the stars left much to be desired. Also some
of the contests became meaningless as many of the matches were played
on flat tracks leading to record totals in the region of 700 and 800
and batsmen running up double centuries and even a triple century.
The 39th edition of the Duleep Trophy to be played in the East Zone
from Wednesday will again be conducted sans many popular stars, with
the Indian team currently in Australia. But there are still many crowd
pullers, led by former Indian captain Md Azharuddin. And many young
players in the zonal sides have already performed well in the Ranji
Trophy matches so far. Also, the fact that centres like Agartala and
Guwahati will host two of the games should guarantee a full house.
Central Zone are the holders but South Zone and North Zone look strong
contenders. However they meet in the quarterfinal at Agartala from
December 1. The winner will play Central at Guwahati in one semifinal
while East and West meet in the other semifinal at Calcutta from
December 9 to 13. The final will be played at Calcutta from December
17.